Norah Allison McGuinness (7 November 1901 – 22 November 1980) was an Irish
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
and
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
.
Early life
Norah McGuinness was born in
County Londonderry
County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. B ...
. She attended life classes at Derry Technical School and from 1921 studied at the
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
Metropolitan School of Art under
Patrick Tuohy
Patrick Tuohy (27 February 1894 – August 1930) was an Irish portrait, narrative, and genre painter.
Early life
Patrick Joseph Tuohy was born in Dublin on 27 February 1894, at 77 Lower Dorset Street. His parents were the surgeon, John Jose ...
( 1894–1930 ),
Oswald Reeves ( 1870–1967 ) and
Harry Clarke
Henry Patrick Clarke (17 March 1889 – 6 January 1931) was an Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator. Born in Dublin, he was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement.
His work was influenced by both the Art Nouveau and ...
. Through Clarke she obtained a commission to illustrate Sterne's ''A Sentimental Journey'' (London, 1926). She attended the
Chelsea Polytechnic
Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation.
It offers further and higher educati ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
before spending the 1920s working in Dublin as a book illustrator and stage designer.
She settled in 1925 in Wicklow and was involved in the literary and theatrical life of Dublin, designing for the Abbey and Peacock theatres and illustrating
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
’s ''Stories of Red Hanrahan'' (London, 1927).
On
Mainie Jellett
Mary Harriet "Mainie" Jellett (29 April 1897, Dublin – 16 February 1944, Dublin) was an Irish painter whose ''Decoration'' (1923) was among the first abstract paintings shown in Ireland when it was exhibited at the Society of Dublin Painter ...
’s advice she went to Paris in 1929 to study with
André Lhôte and came under the influence of the
Ecole de Paris
The School of Paris (french: École de Paris) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century.
The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance ...
.
She married the editor
Geoffrey Phibbs
Jeoffrey "Geoffrey" Basil Phibbs (1900–1956) was an English-born Irish poet; he took his mother's name and called himself Geoffrey Taylor, after about 1930.
Phibbs was born in Smallburgh, Norfolk. He was brought up in Sligo, and educated ...
, but they divorced in 1930 after Phibbs had left her more than once, notably for the poet
Laura Riding
Laura Riding Jackson (born Laura Reichenthal; January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991), best known as Laura Riding, was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer.
Early life
She was born in New York City to Nathan ...
.
From there she moved to London where she was a member of
Lucy Wertheim
Lucy Carrington Wertheim (''née'' Pearson; 1882, in Whitechapel, London – 1971, in Brighton) was an English gallery owner who founded the Twenties Group of "English artists in their twenties" in 1930 and was Christopher Wood's main patron b ...
's 'Twenties Group' and of the avant-garde
London Group
The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...
. From 1937-39 she lived in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. After New York, she returned to Ireland in 1939, settled in Dublin and concentrated on painting. She died in
County Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
.
Work
Although her work remained figurative, she painted vivid, highly coloured landscapes; her work shows the cubist influence of Lhote and she was associated with the modern movement in Ireland. She helped found the
Irish Exhibition of Living Art
The Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA) was a yearly exhibition of Irish abstract expressionism and avant-garde Irish art that was started in 1943 by Mainie Jellett.
Background
World War II Ireland
During World War II, Ireland remained ...
in 1943 and became its president in 1944 after the death of Mainie Jellett.
With
Nano Reid
Nano, Nano-, NANO or NaNo may refer to:
People
* Nano (singer) (born 1988), Japanese-American J-pop singer
* Nano Omar (born 1986), Swedish singer
* Nano Riantiarno (born 1949), Indonesian director
* Agnese Nano (born 1965), Italian actress
* Fa ...
sh
represented Irelandin the 1950
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
. This was the first time Ireland participated in this international exhibition. By 2017, th
official list of artistsrepresenting Ireland since 1950 showed that the majority of artists chosen in the years since McGuinness and Reid's participation were women. She was elected an honorary member of the
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...
in 1957, but later resigned.
There was a retrospective of her work in the
Douglas Hyde Gallery
The Douglas Hyde Gallery is a publicly funded contemporary art gallery situated within the historical setting of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
When the Gallery opened in 1978, it was for a number of years Ireland's only public gallery of ...
,
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
in 1968, and in 1973 the college awarded her an honorary doctorate. Her work featured in IMMA’s 2013 ‘Analysing Cubism’ exhibition.
Work in collections
*
Crawford Art Gallery
The Crawford Art Gallery ( ga, Áiléar Crawford) is a public art gallery and museum in the city of Cork, Ireland. Known informally as the Crawford, it was designated a 'National Cultural Institution' in 2006. It is "dedicated to the visual arts ...
, Cork
*
The Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...
*
The National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...
**Portrait of Michael Scott
**Portrait of Denis Johnston
**The Startled Bird
*
Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
The Hugh Lane Gallery, officially Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its subsidiary, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House ( ...
*The
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
London
*The
Arts Council of Ireland
The Arts Council (sometimes called the Arts Council of Ireland; legally ga, An Chomhairle Ealaíon) is the independent "Irish government agency for developing the arts."
About
It was established in 1951 by the Government of Ireland, to encour ...
*The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, including
*
''Inlet'' (1976)*Meath County Council, including
*
*The
National Library of Ireland
The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland is ...
External links and references
*S.B. Kennedy (2002), McGuinness, Norah in Brian Lalor (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
*David Scott (1989), The Modern Art Collection, Trinity College Dublin. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Press, Dublin. .
Meath County Council biographical note's ''Tristram Shandy'']
Norah McGuinness works on Artnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGuinness, Norah
1901 births
1980 deaths
20th-century Irish painters
20th-century Irish women artists
Alumni of the National College of Art and Design
Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom
Irish expatriates in the United States
Irish illustrators
Irish watercolourists
Irish women painters
People from County Dublin
People from County Londonderry
Women watercolorists